Anniversaries and the Public Uses of the Risorgimento in Twentieth-Century Italy

This article analyses three great anniversaries in twentieth-century italian history: 1911 an 1961, the fiftieth anniversary and the centenary of unification, and 1932, the fiftieth anniversariy of Garibaldi death. The anniversaries offer a privileged perspective from wich we can explore national myth, the process by wich the public use of history can legitimate the present, the conflict over memories and national symbols, the strategies and languages of patriotic pedagogy.